63rd Edition
June 2021
Notch Hill School House Turns 100
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By Barbra Fairclough The school has a spacious entry room This June 26th the Notch Hill Comwhich included an inside stair access to munity will come out to celebrate the old the ground level basement. This was not School House turning 100 years. It is lo- common with the early two story, one cated at the Notch Hill Historic Commu- room classrooms. This made it easy to get nity Park site at 1639 Notch Hill Road. downstairs without going outside. With the It is home to the basement level above schoolhouse as grade there is a need well as the historic for a full exterior Notch Hill Comstair for student acmunity Hall and cess to the classroom. the White Church. The basement also In the late has exterior doors. 1800s, the CPR The basement built a station and housed the large in the early 1900’s wood burning fursettlement began nace and the classto blossom. As room above would be settlement hapheated by the warm pened and chilair plenum of the dren moved to the heater. The exit in the area the need for a classroom upstairs school presented lead to the large field itself. outside where the The brown children played. schoolhouse loIn the1936-37 cated at the Notch school year, Acer Hill town site was glabrum maple trees Notch Hill School House is 100 years old built in 1921. The were planted on the - Photo from ”Notch Hill Significant Stateproperty the school schoolhouse propments” by Trelle Morrow and other building erty by the children. are on was donated by Nels Sjodin fami- Keith Walters was in grade two that year ly. The one room building accommodated and in the book by Trelle Morrow “Notch grades 1 through 8. The classroom is 28ft Hill Significant Statements” in 2017 Keith by 24ft, which was larger than the usual Walters says, classroom by four feet. The last class was “Our schoolteacher was Miss in 1971 and local resident Miriam Leggett Smiley and she organized a tree (Continued on page 3) taught the last year the school was open.